1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a driving support apparatus for a vehicle that enables passing control relating to a preceding vehicle that travels in front of a host vehicle.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a variety of support apparatuses for vehicles such as automobiles have been developed and put to practical use, those apparatuses using a camera or a radar device installed on the vehicle to recognize the traveling environment around the vehicle and reduce operational load on the driver. A system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2009-248892 is an example of such a driving support apparatus. In the system, when the speed of the preceding vehicle is lower than the set speed of the vehicle equipped with the driving support apparatus, it is determined whether or not the vehicle can pass the preceding vehicle on the basis of the traveling position of the vehicle and traffic information, and, when it is determined that the passing is possible, the vehicle is caused to pass the preceding vehicle by automatic driving.
In JP-A No. 2009-248892, whether or not the preceding vehicle can be passed is determined in advance, and a passing preparation operation is performed when it is determined that passing is possible, thereby enabling automatic passing without frightening or giving discomfort to the driver of the vehicle or drivers of the surrounding vehicles, but no particular attention is paid to changes in the surrounding conditions after the passing has been started.
Thus, depending on the change in conditions after the passing of the preceding vehicle has been started, it may be necessary to terminate the passing or the passing can be safely completed. In either case, driving support is needed that gives no anxiety to the drivers.